Kids Will Be Kids
by loudsmiles
Summary: It was the most unexpected friendship the citizens of Balancoire could think of. Perhaps, in a way, that meant they should have expected it. KalasMelodia friendship, mild BKO ending spoilers
1. Chapter 1

NOTE: There are no BK spoilers in this fic. However, there ARE spoilers in the intro/thing. They are in the second paragraph. If you have not reached the Fifth End Magnus at the least, skip the second paragraph of the intro/thing. Having finished BK would be better, although of the spoilers revealed towards the end of BK are not stated explicitly. They are, however, implied, but only in that one paragraph. I would recommend skipping it if you have not finished the game.

Well, this strange little thing has an odd backstory. It started as a Kalas and Melodia centric piece, centered around when they were both kids, that I started writing in class while procrastinating on my English assignment. Then I decided that it would work better in a series of connected drabbles, but had difficulty getting anything I wrote to work (as it always is when you're trying to write something in particular ). A few days ago, my muse decided to be nice to me and I wrote the first two parts of what you see here. I was going to simply connect what I'd already written to what I'd just finished when I realized that, due to how I'd written the first piece, it would need several editing attacks before the whole thing would flow together. So I decided to simply write another section. A few of the elements are the same, but a whole chunk of dialog in the original piece never got converted to the second. So it goes XD. This was also the first time, oddly enough, that I've used music to break through a mini writer's block. Specifically, countless repeats of the song Your Hand In Mine by Explosions in the Sky XD. It's an amazing song and really reminded me of Kalas and Melodia's relationship (or at least how I interpret their relationship XD). Not to mention it works well for any extremely close relationship and is now officially my Best Song To Write To song XD. (other notable songs are Tifa's piano theme from FF VII: Advent Children and Eyes on Me from FFVIII, although I have really no idea why the last one fit, but it did)

Anyway, this is essentially how I interpret Kalas and Melodia's pre-BK relationship. In my personal opinion, I think that Kalas and Melodia had to be childhood friends, simply because Kalas doesn't _like _people. Or trust them. And regardless of the tempting offer of power for revenge, he would not trust some random albino girl he'd never met after his brother and grandfather had just been killed by people he'd never met. Granted, I may be wrong, but I think he would be much more responsive to someone he knew who had been worried about him and then introduced the idea of bonding with a spirit after he'd mentioned revenge. Also, everyone in Mira that you meet pretty much loves Melodia and says she's really sweet and caring and everything, so before her parents' deaths and the influence of Malpercio she must have been genuinely kind. Not to mention that I believe the theory that Sagi and Milly are her parents, so she was probably much more energetic earlier in her life. Oh, and I used a mix of canon ages and what I decided because I didn't like the canon ages. So, in this fic, Kalas is 13, Melodia is 10 (the plague will occur when she is 12), and Fee is 9. I have a feeling that Fee is actually two years younger than Kalas as opposed to four years, but a four year difference worked better for this fic. Oh, and Melli/Mel are nicknames for Melodia, just in case anyone's confused.

* * *

A middle aged man sat at a worktable, carefully inspecting the inside of a small clock. Frowning at the dust covering its inner workings, he blew harshly into it, then choked on the debris.

"Gets me every time," he muttered to himself, coughing. Again he peered into the clock, only to grimace and shove a pair of glasses onto his face. There! Much clearer.

"Gramps! Gramps, I'm home!" Georg sighed and gently put down the clock before exiting to the front room, where a blond haired boy around the age of nine was disposing of a bag that seemed overly heavy for a fourth grader.

"Fee, how was school? And…" Georg glanced outside. "Fee, where's your brother?" he asked in a slightly worried tone. The last time Kalas had come home by himself, Melodia's father had brought him home a few hours later covered in bruises, scrapes, and with a broken arm.

"Oh, right!" Fee's slightly embarrassed look at having forgotten something went a long way towards easing Georg's nerves. "We ran into Melli on the way home. She was leaving the library and Kalas went with her back to her house." That was good, as long as the two managed to stay out of any fights on the way to Melodia's home. Most boys might be unwilling to hit a girl, especially Duke Calbren's granddaughter, but Melodia had no such qualms when someone important to her had been insulted. He sincerely hoped that they would make it through the day without incident. "Oh yeah, and Melli's mother is with them," Fee added as an afterthought, head slightly tipped to one side. Georg let out a breath and relaxed. Milliarde might have been more volatile than her daughter, but no one would dare say anything about Kalas while she was in sight.

"That's good," he said with a small smile. "Did he say when he'd be back?" Another memory rose up of the time several years earlier Kalas had been forced to sprint all the way from Trill's house in the dark while escaping several drunks who had decided to do something about the "freak". After that, Melodia's parents had interfered, either escorting him back or somehow –Georg had no idea how, Kalas was one of the most stubborn kids he'd ever met- persuading him to stay the night. Still, it would be less worrisome if he knew an approximate time.

"Nah," Fee said, digging through a cabinet for a snack. Georg sighed again and thought to himself, _does he ever?_

* * *

"All right, you two!" Melodia's mother shouted as the two children raced towards the door of the house. She valued her dignity too much to chase after them. "Do what you want, but don't get into trouble!" Her words went unnoticed as two voices began to rise in argument directly in front of the door. A young man let out a quiet laugh as he approached her from the side.

"Are they arguing over who won again?" Sagi asked as he approached her. She smiled and linked her arm through his.

"It would appear so," Milly said with a faint note of exasperation as the volume of the argument increased.

"Reminds you of Tik and Wacho, doesn't it?" She snorted, remembering the squabbles between the two that were the bane of her husband's existence whenever they visited Sheratan. "Steal each other's cake and everything."

Milly rolled her eyes in a manner unfitting to the image she usually tried to project. "Kalas! Melodia! Stop yelling this instant!" she hollered down the drive.

"You yell!" Kalas shouted back.

"I'm older!" she shouted, her tone of voice brooking no further argument. The boy appeared to mutter something under his breath before he and Melodia picked up their school bags and went inside. "Finally," she muttered at her normal volume. Her husband shook his head until she glared at him. He quickly raised his arms in protection. Milly huffed and kept walking.

Slowly and warily, Sagi lowered his arms from their position in front of his face. When no bad-tempered punch came his way, he jogged the next few steps until he was even with his wife again.

"To be fair," he began, ready to run for it if Milly objected to "being fair", "they are a bit better than Tik and Wacho. After all, those two usually have to be bribed to forgive each other."

"What would we bribe them with if it was necessary?" Milly said with a slight snarl. "The only effective bribe I can think of is food, and the two of them just steal it from the kitchen."

"Point." Sagi nodded his head in acknowledgement as he opened the door for his wife. "Maybe-" He was cut off by a distinct and sadly familiar sound; that of two children squealing and running away from an annoyed servant. Sure enough, two small blurs soon shot past him, laughing, followed by one of the cooks who looked more amused than annoyed. Milly, on the other hand, was nearly vibrating with annoyance.

"Is chasing them really necessary?" Sagi asked the cook in a deceptively neutral voice.

"No," the young man responded with a grin. "But it brightens all our days." At this, Milly made a sound that was remarkably similar to that of a tea kettle. The cook took his cue and fled back to the safety of the kitchen, leaving Sagi stranded with a woman barely restraining the urge to abandon all dignity to chase down the two children and lock them in room where they couldn't cause any trouble.

Sagi sighed. Why, he wondered, was he always in the middle of these things?

* * *

Already far from her enraged mother, Melodia and Kalas picked their way through the gardens all the way to the low wall that marked the edge of Duke Calbren's property.

"Dang, your mom was pissed this time," Kalas said with a snort, leaping lightly on top of the wall. He pulled two apples out of his pocket –spoils from the kitchen- and tossed one down to Melodia before taking a large bite out of the other. "Good thing your dad's so level headed, otherwise we'd be dead."

"He gets pissed," she corrected. "He simply doesn't see any harm in the two of us stealing food from the kitchen. If we were to do something stupid such as leaving the city bounds by ourselves, then he would get pissed."

"In the mean time, he's on our side."

Melodia allowed a slightly evil grin to spread over her face. "Exactly," she said, and bit into her own apple. Lodging her teeth into the apple, she lifted herself onto the wall. Kalas looked down at her and smirked.

"Weak!"

"You're taller! And older!" she snapped, her characteristic educated –well, educated for a ten year old- words fleeing at the insult.

"Doesn't make you not weak!"

"Just because I don't have experience-" The good humor fled the boy's face as it twisted into a bitter scowl. He stared out down the road leading away from Balancoire. Melodia looked down at her hands. "I'm sorry, Kalas," she said awkwardly. "I didn't mean it like that."

He took a deep breath, then sat down next to her as he exhaled. "S'alright," he said, still not looking at her.

"Kalas, I truly am-"

"Yeah, yeah," he responded without the caustic tone he usually said those words in. "It was an accident." Melodia couldn't tell if she had been forgiven or not.

"Sorry…"

"Mel." He put a hand on her shoulder and she looked up. "I know you. It was an accident." She nodded, still feeling guilty. "Now cheer up and stop apologizing. You're such a dork." He gently knocked his fist against the side of her head.

"Hey!" she objected, accepting his attempt to turn to the conversation to lighter topics. "My being three years younger than you and smarter than you doesn't make me a dork!"

"No, it makes you crazy," he said with a grin. "Especially when you use all those long words like…" He paused.

Melodia crowed in an extremely unladylike fashion. "You can't remember any of them!" she said, laughing.

"Oi!" He knocked his fist against her head again, then decided on a better course of action and started messing up her hair. She shrieked, more out of habit than out of any annoyance.

"Kalas!" She flailed, pushing his arms away from her head. "What was that for?" she protested, although the sting was taken out of it by her laughter. His trademark cocky grin found its way onto his face and she resisted the urge to elbow him.

"No reason. Just wanted to annoy you," Kalas said with a smirk.

"Ugh!" Melodia gave into the urge and elbowed her best friend in the side. He yelped, though it didn't stop him from laughing. She rolled her eyes. "You're hopeless," she remarked to the boy still chuckling quietly. His response was to poke her in the side, causing her to squeak even she knew he was doing it.

"So are you," he said, his grin more careless than arrogant. Good thing, too, or she would have elbowed him again. They both fell silent, or as silent as two people who are still laughing about something can be. Soon, though, even the laughter faded as both devoted their attention to their respective apples.

"Oh, yeah," Kalas said through a mouthful of apple. Silently, Melodia congratulated herself on being able to understand him. It had been a slow coming talent, but at least it had come. "How's that library thing going? Didn't your mom say that your grandfather was rebuilding it or something?"

"Expanding it, although they are rebuilding parts." She took a bite out of her apple, chewed, and swallowed before she continued. "It's going well. The new floor needs to be decorated and furnished and there are a few other sections that are still under construction, but it's almost done. You should visit with us sometime," she added at the end, unable to resist needling Kalas on his dislike of academic institutions. He made a gagging sound.

"Think I'll pass on that."

"Oh, really?" she said with an impudent whine to her voice. "We'll be importing so many new books." She suppressed a snicker when he glared at her.

"Definitely passing on that," he said, disgusted. Melodia giggled. "Did I ever mention you are the strangest ten-year-old I know?"

"Yes, you did. I believe the latest time was yesterday." A grin spread over her face as a new thought came to mind. "You know, your brother will probably want to visit once it's finished." He nodded, suspicious. "He's still young, so your grandfather will probably want you to go with him." Kalas's look of shock and horror nearly made her fall off the wall with laughter.

"If you ever suggest that to him, I will dunk you in the fountain," he said darkly.

"Hmm…It might be worth it," she said mildly, then burst into laughter as Kalas's glare darkened. "Don't worry; I won't say anything," she assured him, although he didn't appear to believe her much.

"You better not," he grumbled. Melodia gave him a dazzling, innocent-seeming smile. Kalas opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by a gardener approaching through the bushes.

"There you are!" the man said with a relieved smile. A very relieved smile. The two children glanced at each other. "Lady Milliarde is looking for the two of you." Kalas immediately swore under his breath and Melodia quickly put a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet.

"Did Mother state why?" she asked the servant in as neutral a voice as she could muster.

"No, miss." The two children glanced at each other again. If she hadn't said why she wanted them, then that meant she was probably annoyed with them about something. Which meant it wasn't safe to be anywhere near her mother until her father managed to calm her down.

"Could you inform her that we will be in shortly? I would appreciate it," Melodia said innocently, a charming smile on her face. The gardener nodded and turned back to the manor. Melodia allowed herself to feel a moment of pity for the man before turning back to Kalas.

"Where should we hide?" she whispered.

"Trill's house? If she finds us and we're helping Trish's mom, she might not kill us as much," he offered.

"Good idea. Let's go before she comes looking for us." Melodia hopped off the wall and hid her apple core under a large bush. Kalas followed suit, then snuck closer to the house and peered over a wall of bushes before turning back to her, slightly pale. "He's almost in the house, isn't he?" she asked anxiously.

Kalas nodded. "We have to hurry. Race you!" He took off towards the city. Melodia grinned slightly and followed him.

"Nothing like a competition to make you go faster, right?" she asked once she caught up.

"'Course," he responded as he jumped over an inconveniently placed rock. "Loser takes the blame for all this?"

"Deal." Kalas bobbed his head in acknowledgement before putting on speed and she laughed breathlessly before doing the same.

* * *

Like it? Hate it? Want to offer your own opinions? Then review! XD Reviews would be greatly appreciated, especially if you tell me what you liked and what you didn't. Thanks for reading! -TJdork


	2. Chapter 2

For those of you who suggested I write more, well, this it. Several months late, yes, but it did make it eventually. Hopefully, I will move my butt a bit faster on the next one, but with school coming up and a schedule that promises to find some way to kill me, that may not happen. At any rate, I have decided to continue this story further; I think I'm going to try to continue it at least up to Gramps' and Fee's deaths and possibly further, maybe even into the game itself.

Speaking of Gramps' and Fee's deaths, Fan Fan Girl pointed out something that I completely forgot when writing the first chapter. That particular detail is that when Melodia approaches Kalas in Nekton, Kalas asks, "who are you?", which indicates he doesn't know her. Obviously, I forgot about this XD.

* * *

Kalas stifled a groan and stared at the clock. Hell, could the damn thing go _any _slower? It was Friday and he was ready to get out of there.

A light tap on the window snatched his attention away from the clock. Turning to look, he nearly yelled when he saw the culprit, then settled for a glare when the turquoise-haired girl smiled and waved cheekily at him.

Damn it all. Melodia _liked_ studying. So why was he the one stuck in school eight hours a day while she danced around outside? He mouthed several curses –no way in hell was he getting another detention for "inappropriate language"- and began quietly slipping the books on his desk into a well-worn bag at his feet. Not for the first time, he wished that Magnus were allowed at the school; a small stack of cards was a hell of a lot easier to carry around then an oversized schoolbag. At least the upperclassmen weren't required to put their bags in the back of the classroom like the little kids were. He'd lost track of the number of times he'd been delayed in his escape from the school because of the crowd of people trying to get their stuff. Of course, that didn't make up for some of the downsides of belonging to the upper class. Like the fact that the teachers were less willing to forgive fights. And the homework load increased and Gramps actually checked to make sure he did all of it. That was a pain in the ass.

Another tap at the window. Kalas restrained the urge to look, knowing that all he would see would be Melodia's grinning face as she flaunted her freedom. He looked at the clock instead. Only a few minutes left and the teacher was showing no signs of shutting up anytime soon. Ugh.

Next to him, Trill was also aimlessly staring around the room. She jumped suddenly, then scribbled a quick note and kicked him in the ankle. Recognizing the signal, he casually reached out to the side and was rewarded with a scrap of paper being stuffed into his hand. He slipped the note under his desk and quietly opened it.

_What's Melodia doing outside the window?_ He glanced over at Trill, who was watching him out of the corner of her eye, and shrugged. All right, so he knew one reason why Melodia was her: to annoy him. But that usually wasn't enough for her to be waiting outside the school, so she probably had another reason. She better have another reason. If she didn't, he _would_ dunk her in the fountain.

The bell finally rang and he leapt up alongside the twenty other students. Grabbing the bag, he slung it over his shoulder and shoved his way through the other students and desks. The teacher shouted something over the din that was ignored as he made his way into the hallway. Outside of the classroom, the school was already beginning to fill with noise as students filtered out of the other classrooms. Kalas spent a moment to gauge the flow and grimaced. At this rate, the halls would be completely clogged by the time he reached the exit, not to mention that he had to go in the opposite direction to get Fee. For some crazy reason, his brother never left the classroom unless someone forced him to, and shoving his way through crowds now was infinitely preferable to waiting for the next half hour for him to come out and then having to go fetch him anyway.

Gritting his teeth, Kalas set off.

* * *

The flow of students had nearly completely ceased before Kalas appeared at the school entrance, dragging his younger brother behind him. They descended the stairs quickly, Fee chattering nonsensically about a project he was doing in class while Kalas ignored with the ease of long practice. As they reached the street, Melodia and her mother fell in step with them from where they had been waiting besides the steps.

"What took so long?" Melodia asked, her careful innocence wrecked by not quite hidden laughter in her voice. Kalas groaned and turned to glare at his brother, as Melodia had suspected he would.

"Sorry, Melli," Fee said sheepishly. "I was talking with my teacher about a project."

"Really?" Melodia's mother interrupted. Her eyes glinted mischievously. "What _kind_ of project?"

Kalas muttered something under his breath as Fee's eyes lit up and he launched into an elaborate description of the garden his class would be working on over the course of the school year. Melodia and her mother, taking one look at Kalas's discomfort, quickly stifled laughs as they walked towards one of Balancoire's major plazas.

As they began to approach the plaza, the sound of burbling water reached Melodia's ears. With a start, she realized that Kalas would soon be able to carry out his usual threat without first having to locate a body of water. And he wouldn't hesitate to do it. She'd been the victim of enough buckets of cold water over the years of their friendship to know that.

"Hey, Kalas," she said, drifting back to place herself next to the sulking almost-teenager. He grunted. Melodia rolled her eyes.

"Kalas," she said again. No response. "Kalas!"

"What?"

Well. At least he was speaking. That was a start. "What's wrong? You're annoyed because of Fee, aren't you?"

Kalas groaned. "He's been talking about that project nonstop for days. First the teacher said, 'we're doing a class project, so your homework is to think of ideas!' so he has to bounce ideas off of _someone_-"

"You?"

"Well, who else? Gramps? He's always tinkering with something and for some reason, he banned both me and Fee from his workshop a few weeks ago."

Melodia frowned. "Why?"

"Do I look like I know? Anyway, that rules _him_ out. So of course the duty falls to me. I've been listening to, 'hey, Kalas what do you think about _this_ idea?' and 'hey, Kalas, what about _that_ idea?' for a week. A _week_. And now that they've decided on an idea, he can go on about it in detail!"

"Ouch," Melodia murmured sympathetically. Half of her felt very sorry for Kalas, as anyone who had to put up with Fee's enthusiasm for an entire week, nonstop, was bound to go crazy. On the other hand, half of her wanted to burst into laughter at his rant, which seemed to be very long in coming. Sadly, laughing at Kalas would no doubt be counterproductive to her goal of not getting dumped in the fountain, so she kept it in. "A week of that?" She waved her hand towards her mother and Fee, who were engaged in an in-depth discussion of whether it would be possible to plant a Cebalrai apple tree in the middle of Balancoire.

Kalas sighed, his energy spent. "Yes. A week. Of that."

"And you haven't told him to shut up yet? Or started to ignore him? If it had been me, you would have zoned out the first day." Kalas stopped abruptly in the middle of the street and gave her a look.

"Are you crazy? He's my little brother. I can't do that," he said, his tone clearly suggesting he was starting to doubt her intelligence. He began walking again, leaving his slightly dumbfounded friend a few steps behind.

"Wait!" Melodia latched onto his bag, forcing him to stop as she caught up to him. He looked down at her and had a moment to feel worried at her large grin before she spoke again.

"You do care about him!" she said, gushing. "You don't want to hurt his feelings!"

Kalas turned red and stopped for the second time in less then a minute. "Wait-what the heck?" he said, speech momentarily abandoning him.

"No, no," she said lightly, dancing around him. She waved a finger in his face. "You can't pretend. You care about him and that's why you won't tell him to shut up." She turned around with a small squeal and began to march off.

Kalas stared at her for a few seconds, then decided to resort to his favorite way of regaining face: threatening. "All right, you…" He let the last word trail off as Melodia looked over her shoulder in question before letting out a squeak and sprinting off as he gave chase.

* * *

The first hint for Fee and Milly that the remaining two members of their group were having a separate conversation was when a small greenish-blue blur shot past them. The second hint was when a larger, blue blur followed soon after, yelling something unintelligible. They paused, then traded glances.

Milly was the first to break the stunned silence. "Can't they go ten minutes without squabbling?" she growled.

"No," Fee said with absolute conviction. He tipped his head to the side, blonde hair falling across his eyes. "And there's a fountain. He can dunk Melli in it instead of just saying he will." Milly froze as the words sunk in.

"Oh, for the love of-" she snarled before abandoning her precious dignity and chasing after the wayward children.

Watching the irate woman capture and shake his brother and friend into submission, Fee felt a momentary pity for the two of them. When she dragged the two over, though, he carefully schooled his face into neutrality. As much as he loved his older brother, he wouldn't risk a scolding from Melodia's mother for him. She was scary when she felt like it.

* * *

After being thoroughly chastised for "causing a public scene", Kalas and Melodia were both heartily wishing they would somehow run into Melodia's father, who might be able to defuse his wife. Kalas was also rubbing one ear, which looked a bit red, and grumbling.

"Jeez, does she have to pull that hard?" he said quietly, in fear of being overheard and having the crazy lady descend upon him again.

"You shouldn't have said that part about her causing public scenes," Melodia pointed out.

"It's true!"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean you should say it!" The girl sighed. Her mother was often guilty of the same crimes she charged her daughter and friends with, but it was generally safer not to say so. How Kalas hadn't managed to learn that lesson after they'd been friends for years, Melodia had no idea. She sighed again.

"I hope Dad's there when we get there," she said finally, a wistful note in her voice. Kalas's head snapped up.

"'There'?" he repeated, suspicious. "Where's 'there'?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, didn't I?" Melodia smiled. He was going to love this. "The library's finished. Mom thought Fee would want to see it, so we decided to meet you two at the school."

"What?" he said, too loudly for comfort.

"Shh! I've already been scolded once today!" She waited until he calmed down enough to just glare at her. "I've already seen it, so Mom will stay with Fee. Dad will meet us at the library so we can do something else." Kalas let out a relieved breath that had her struggling not to laugh again. It also had her mentally sighing at his lack of enthusiasm, but trying to get her friend to change was a long-lost cause.

"Kalas! Melli! Come on, we're almost there!" The two turned around to find Fee waving at them. They rushed to catch up.

"Sorry for falling behind," Melodia said once they were close to the other two. "Kalas just realized we were going to the library."

Milly burst into laughter and the children let out a collective breath. She wasn't annoyed anymore. That was good. Of course, what wasn't good was that there was a lack of "serious" adults, which meant she would fall straight to teasing.

"You know, Kalas," the woman began, "if you don't build up some tolerance for books now, one day you'll find yourself falling in love with a girl who loves academics."

"W-what?" The two younger children nearly collapsed laughing as Kalas turned bright red and started spluttering.

"No, mark my words," Milly said, nodding sagely. "It's happened before, it can happen again. Not to mention that you are getting to the age when such things start occurring…" Kalas glared at her smiling face in disgust and stomped off, leaving behind three people laughing uproariously at his expense.

"He's never going to forgive you for that, you know," Fee finally said after he'd calmed down.

"I suppose you're right," she said airily, not sorry at all. "Unless…" She paused, thinking. "Fee? When's our dear Kalas's birthday?"

"Um…in eight days, I think," the boy answered, confused.

"Is it? That's a bit sooner than I thought." She shrugged. "Ah well. It's long enough."

"Long enough for what?" her daughter asked.

"Oh, nothing." Milly smiled in a near-exact replica of her daughter's "innocent" face. "I was just thinking about what kind of present I should get for him," she said, turning to walk away. The two children ran after her, hurrying to stay in front.

"Really? Tell us! Please?"

"No, no," she said, shaking her head. "If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise anymore."

"But it's supposed to be a surprise for him, Mom! It doesn't have to be surprise for us!"

"Please? We promise we won't tell!"

"Just a hint?"

"A small hint?"

Each plea was met with a shake of the head until both children ran out of breath to continue begging. By the time the strange group had caught up to its last member, all Kalas needed was one look at Milly's amused face and the disgruntled ones of his brother and friend to decide that, for once, maybe it would be safer to not say anything.

* * *

Yep, coming up next is Kalas's birthday. Or at least flashbacks of Kalas's birthday. Something. Anyway, please review! -TJdork


	3. Chapter 3

I LIVE!

All right. So...I have no excuse. I've had enough free time over the last god-knows how many months to write this freaking chapter and I haven't. I'm sorry for taking so long and I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed/favorited/alerted this. You guys guilted me into being productive (and as all of my friends would tell you: I'm really, really, really bad at being productive). As always, any feedback is appreciated. Hope you enjoy your long delayed chapter.

* * *

Nine days after the library incident that Kalas swore never to forgive Milly for and a few hours after he'd forgiven her anyway (her offer to teach him how to fight might have had something to do with it, although Georg didn't approve), Kalas found himself trying to understand Sagi's explanation of flying and wings of heart and failing miserably. It didn't help that Sagi kept pausing for long moments, a slight frown on his face, before abandoning his current approach and trying something that confused Kalas even more. If Kalas hadn't known Sagi was a spiriter, Kalas would have thought the older man was crazy. As it was, Kalas still wasn't so sure of the man's sanity. After all, this was someone who was happily married to Milly. If that wasn't a mark of insanity, Kalas didn't know what was.

Sagi fell silent again, brow furrowing as he listened to his spirit. Kalas tried not to sigh with impatience and settled for tapping the stone bench they were sitting on with his nails. He'd already tried getting Gramps to explain wings of heart and had gotten lost once his grandfather had started talking about right and left sides of the brain. Milly he would only ask if he was desperate; knowing her, she'd probably slept through any times one of her teachers had talked about it, figuring it wouldn't be important. Crazy woman.

"…idea…really think…work?" Kalas suppressed the urge to smack himself in the forehead and didn't say anything. It was always so confusing when Sagi started talking to his spirit; you never knew whether he was talking to you or not.

"Kalas?" Kalas blinked and refocused on Sagi, who had finally stopped chatting with the voices in his head.

The older man smiled sheepishly. "Sorry about that. Marno thought that since I haven't been explaining it very well, I must not be paying attention to him, which I am. He's just not explaining it very well either," Sagi said, shaking his head.* "At any rate, Marno just remembered how a friend of his explained wings to him before he became a spirit. So we're going to try that way."

Kalas nodded, not trusting himself to not say something nasty if he opened his mouth.

"Okay. Sorry about all this," the older man said. "You probably should have asked your grandfather or Milly instead."

"I already tried Gramps," Kalas grumbled. He would not rant. He would not rant.

A corner of Sagi's mouth quirked up. "Let me guess; he explained the science of the wings instead of saying something that was actually helpful. And you don't want to ask Milly, because knowing her, she slept through that lesson, never thinking she'd need to explain it someone." He ran a hand through his teal hair, an exasperated smile on his face. "You wouldn't be the first person in trouble because of her bad habits."

Kalas snorted. "First person? More like the one hundred and first person."

Sagi grinned. "That's true. Although if you want to make it into a contest, I'm sure I would win the prize for 'most frequently in trouble because Milliarde slept through her classes'. Did I ever tell you and Melodia about the Lord of the Lava Caves?"

"The Lord of the Lava Caves is real?"

"Of course he is. All myths are grounded in reality. That one just has more truth to it than most."

Kalas shifted uncomfortably. Whenever Sagi talked about myths, or whenever anyone mentioned myths with the man in the room, he would have an odd look in his eyes that Kalas couldn't put his finger on. Nor did he really want to. It was one of the few times Melli's father –normally easygoing and relaxed, the complete opposite of his wife- unnerved him. In Kalas's experience, it was best to just avoid the whole situation all together. Quickly, he spoke.

"So…what happened?"

The older man sighed in the manner of one who had long since resigned himself to his fate, yet at the same time was amused by it. "Let's just put it this way: the Lord of the Lava Caves is real, not a myth. It made for a very harrowing few minutes." The odd light faded from his eyes. Kalas let out a mental deep breath.

Then he realized that Sagi had gotten lost in thought _again_, and had to take another mental deep breath so he would wait instead of hitting himself in the forehead. After a few moments, Sagi jumped.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I got lost in thought there," Sagi said, apologizing for the second time in as many minutes.

Kalas bit his lip and refrained from pointing out that Sagi was always getting "lost in thought", and if that was what having a spirit did to you, Kalas didn't want one. Being polite was hard.

"All right," the older man continued, oblivious to Kalas's internal battles. "You know that the wings of heart are a physical representation of a person's heart, right?" Kalas nodded. "Well, it's also a belief that there are wings there. If you believe you have wings, you have wings. If you don't, you don't. It's as simple as that."

Kalas frowned. "If that's all there is to it, then how come I can't have two wings?"

"Because you know you don't have two wings." At Kalas's confused look, Sagi explained. "Whenever you've tried to draw your wings before, you've only ever been able to manifest one. So your mind is telling you that the other wing isn't there. Whether that's true or not, you agree with that belief on some level and your heart isn't strong enough to convince your mind that that's not true."

"So…I just suck at lying to myself?"

Sagi laughed. "I guess you could put it that way. Lying to yourself is generally a bad thing, though, so I wouldn't be too concerned." Kalas didn't look convinced, so Sagi continued. "If it makes you feel better, one of Marno's best friends had trouble with this too. While he had two wings, he could never fly for very long because he wasn't sure his wings would be able to carry him. Seeing as your wings both look pretty strong, I doubt you'll have a problem with that. Have you ever looked at the wings of heart of other people?"

Kalas blinked abruptly. "Wait…what? Where the heck did that come from?"

"It's related, I promise," the older man said, amused. "Have you?"

"Not really, no." The reason why –that it was a reminder of his single wing- went unsaid.

"Try it next time. Your heart doesn't just affect the appearance of your wings, it also affects how big they are. And you have a pretty wide wingspan for someone who only had one wing. Regardless of whatever your heart might be missing, it's very strong. Even stronger than a whole heart, in some cases. Now," he said, gently knocking Kalas on the head, "I'm sure you're dying to make all kinds of obnoxious comments, so how about we talk about what you came here for before you explode?"

---

Twenty minutes later, Melodia was searching the grounds for her best friend and father and failing miserably. She knew they were out here; one of the servants had told her that they were out here. "Out here" just happened to be a very large place. She was beginning to understand why the servants hated it when she and Kalas hid in the gardens. Of course, the servants were usually being forced by the terrifying force that was Lady Milliarde, so she supposed that she was still better off than they were.

"Melodia!" Melodia looked up from the bushes she'd been searching through to see her father rounding the corner of one of the hedges. She stood, ignoring the stains the grass had made on her white dress.

"Dad! Where were you? I've been – wait, where's Kalas?" She frowned as she noticed the lack of blue-haired teenagers.

Her father grinned. "He's back a little ways. Just go straight down this path" –he motioned to the path he'd just come down-"and you'll run into him eventually." He turned to walk back to the house.

"But why isn't he with you?" Melodia asked, confused.

Sagi shrugged. "You'll see," he answered casually. "Oh, and make sure the two of you aren't out here for longer than an hour. Your mother will start getting worried."

Melodia nodded. "I will," she promised before racing down the path her father had pointed down, nearly tripping over an errant tree root as she did. The path itself wasn't very long; a few seconds of running and a quick turn around a corner she almost crashed into brought her to a small spring surrounded by trees. A wooden bench wrapped halfway around one of the larger trees, nearly invisible in the shade. It was also unoccupied, which meant that Kalas was hiding somewhere nearby, waiting to sneak up behind her. She turned around, scanning the rest of the clearing.

_Thump_.

She spun around with a shriek. Her skirt tangled in her legs and she stumbled, waving her arms in a frantic attempt to regain her balance, and failed miserably, falling into the pool with a loud splash. Water dripping from her hair and clothes, she glared up at the laughing bluenette.

"You know," Kalas began, still laughing. "For all the times I've threatened to dump you in the fountain, you'd think that you'd be more wary around bodies of water."

"Well, I didn't exactly expect you to come out of the sky," Melodia muttered, splashing a bit for emphasis. She suddenly paused, hand hovering above the water, as her mind realized what was wrong with that sentence.

From the _sky_?

"Wait…how...," she said, all coherency deserting her.

Kalas grinned, slowly at first, then wider. With a flash, he drew his single black wing of heart and at the same time-

Melodia felt her jaw drop open.

The mechanical wing opened smoothly, mimicking the movement of its partner. It looked insubstantial, a few flat metal blades taking the place of feathers, but they moved as gracefully as black wing, chopping down into the air with ease and pushing Kalas off the ground. He hovered for a moment, the light from the black wing fading, then folded his wings and dropped back down.

"It's a winglet," he said, as her mind scrambled to recover. "They use them in the Empire for people who don't have wings of the heart." He leaned over and held out a hand to help her up. She accepted it, allowing herself to be pulled out of the water onto dry land.

"I know what a winglet is," she said, dazed. "But how…?"

"Gramps made it for me," he answered, still grinning. "He gave it to me last night, after you all left." He shrugged, flicking the tips of the metal wing. "Which explains why he was acting so weirdly last night. He wasn't sure how well it work, so he wanted me to test it a bit before I showed anyone else."

Melodia forced her thoughts into order. "Well, it seems to be working perfectly," she said weakly, still a bit shocked. She added a small smile at the end, hoping that Kalas take the compliment as she intended it instead of misinterpreting her words.

Luckily for her, Kalas either didn't realize or didn't misread her. He grinned. "Yeah, it does," he said with a small nod. "I mean, there's some maintenance stuff I have to worry about, but since Gramps just built it, there shouldn't be any problems for a while. See?" He drew both wings back in, the right one disappearing in a flare of light while the winglet folded in on itself with a few quiet clicks.

"That's amazing," Melodia breathed.

"Yep. I can't wait to see everyone else's faces," he said, smirking. "Just imagine all of practical joke opportunities that have opened up!"

Melodia blinked at him for a second, then burst out laughing.

Some things never changed.


End file.
